According to its website, Sable Mining "has a significant interest
in an exploration permit in the Mount Nimba area of southeast Guinea".
Security guards patrol past the EMATUM fishing fleet docked in Maputo, Mozambique, May 3, 2016.
Guinea's justice minister said
on Saturday he was ordering an examination of how Sable Mining Africa
Ltd won its mining permits, citing allegations of corruption in a report
by watchdog group Global Witness.
Based on what
it said were leaked company documents, Global Witness alleged Sable
Mining financed the 2010 election campaign of President Alpha Conde and paid money to his son for bribes to secure the rights to its Mount Nimba iron ore concession.
Reuters
could not immediately verify the allegations. Calls to Sable Mining and
its public relations agency were not answered on Saturday. Neither were
voice messages and emails sent to both.
Repeated
calls to Guinea's government spokesman were not answered. President
Conde, who Global Witness said was not involved in any wrongdoing, was
abroad on state business.
The president's son, Alpha Mohammed Conde,
also could not be reached but was cited by Global Witness as telling
them that he had never "attempted to use improper influence to assist
Sable".
Global Witness said a government spokesman
said any payments to the president's son from Sable "would have been
for consultancy work or reimbursement for travel".
Sable officials were similarly cited by Global Witness as saying they followed all laws but would investigate.
Cheick Sako,
Guinea's justice minister, said: "The Global Witness report alleges
that the heads of Sable Mining Ltd used corruption to secure permits to
natural resources in Guinea.
"Sable Mining Ltd has
exploration and development rights going back to 2010. I will ensure
that the awarding of each of these permits is examined."
Mines Minister Abdoulaye Magassouba
had earlier issued a statement saying that, following the publication
of the Global Witness report, he had asked the Justice Ministry to look
into the attribution of the permits.
According to
its website, Sable Mining "has a significant interest in an exploration
permit in the Mount Nimba area of southeast Guinea".
Aboubacar
Sampil, the head of West Africa Exploration (WAE), Sable's Guinean
partner in the Mount Nimba project, told Reuters that while Sable was a
shareholder, its name did not appear on any mining permits in Guinea. He
denied any wrongdoing.
"At no moment was there
corruption during the process of acquiring the permit, which entirely
belonged to WAE before the arrival of Sable Mining," he said.
After
decades of dictatorship and military rule, Guinea carried out a review
of mining permits between 2012 and 2015 to ensure that deals had been
negotiated legally and transparently.
The WAE Mount Nimba permit was not among permits reviewed by the panel.
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